“There is a reflexive incarceration of girls for behavior that would better be described as everyday adolescent rebellion than juvenile delinquency,” Lindsay Rosenthal, senior program associate and gender justice fellow with the Vera Institute’s Center on Youth Justice, told Jezebel.

Criminologists also suggest that the changes in policing practices with respect to domestic disputes are to blame. In one study, data from police records of 320 domestic violence calls in five Massachusetts jurisdictions operating under a pro-arrest statute found that less than half (47 percent) involved intimate partner violence. The arrest patterns revealed surprising age and gender biases: Female offenders were nearly 2.5 times more likely than males to be arrested, while adolescents were 4.5 times more likely than adults to face arrest.

So what explains this counterintuitive situation? There a few possible factors, criminologists say. When the police arrive at a home riven by family chaos, young people tend to be less composed than their parents, making them more susceptible to arrest. Youths also have fewer civil rights, and arresting them is less complicated than carting off the primary caregiver or sole breadwinner.

In these cases, judicial and parental paternalism may also be fueling girls’ arrests, researchers say. Police and judges may be more inclined to take young women into custody for their own protection. Meanwhile, adults tend to impose more rules on daughters than sons, leading to greater conflict. “Girls are the ones who have curfews, who are yelled at for going out,” said Chesney-Lind. “There’s a double standard.”

…At around 6:30 a.m. on Monday, a worker carrying a tray of breakfast food knocked on the door, the suit states. When she didn’t answer, he noted that Gynnya “declined breakfast—refused to acknowledge staff.” Later, at 8:53, he opened her cell door and noted on the bed check form that she “declined snack.” At both points, though, Gynnya was already dead.

The Story of the 16-Year-Old Who Died in Custody After Being Arrested for Arguing With Her Mother

A clusterf*ck of madness and errors.